Each of us has our own story about the pandemic. Eddie Carrillo joined MRCO in 2018 as a Restaurant General Manager (RGM). Just a year into his employment, he became manager of the Taco Bell-Pizza Hut Express located inside Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and went on to play a key role in how we served a special segment of the public throughout the uncertainty of COVID-19: first responders, young patients and their families.
Meet Eddie Carrillo, the calm, compassionate RGM who leads our team at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.
“What makes it unique is we get to serve all the doctors and nurses,” Eddie says. “And we get to serve a lot of families going through hardships and traumas.”
“They went through a very rough time during the pandemic,” says Market Coach Joe Leonard of the Vanderbilt team. Reduced hours, volunteer resignations by staff, team member transfers to other locations, the elimination of breakfast — all of these plagued Vanderbilt. Like many restaurants, Eddie’s Taco Bell-Pizza Hut Express saw very little traffic or sales. “But he was able to keep the crew positive,” Joe adds.
Right about the same time Tennessee identified its first confirmed case of COVID-19, Nashville suffered a second blow with several deadly tornado touchdowns across seven counties in one day.
“2020 marked a hard year,” Eddie shares. “But we were resilient and recovered from it all.”
Turning Trials into Triumph
For those being hospitalized during the pandemic, you’ll remember it was especially tragic to be without the comfort and presence of loved ones.
Eddie still chokes up about one particular patient whose story touched his whole team. The young patient was 17 and stuck in the hospital for five months. His mom really wanted to throw him a birthday party, but they didn’t have family close by and of course, visitors were not allowed.
One of Vanderbilt’s shift leaders took the mother shopping to pick out birthday gifts, a cake and other goodies. Eddie’s team not only pitched in for party expenses, but also showed up to celebrate. As far as Eddie could see, it was “the best birthday party.”
“I think what gets me to work is my employees and my customers,” he says. “I have a really close-knit group of employees and we all just try to help and support each other.”
Eddie cultivates a culture of family at his restaurant, according to Joe, and it’s something that MRCO really stands for as a company.
Recognition & Reward
Eddie’s strong leadership qualities are hard to miss! He was recently inducted into our Founders Club for having the highest sales growth and best dissatisfaction rate. He also won a trip to Hawaii for achieving Signature Restaurant status for Vanderbilt (see our 2023 winners).
“I think MRCO is a great franchise.” -Eddie Carrillo, RGM
In turn, Eddie seems proud to have MRCO as an employer. He is grateful for the financial support he’s witnessed in recent years, both personally and for his team. He shares that the wage increases MRCO employed to combat rising inflation helped managers like him retain reliable team members.
“They pay their general managers really well,” he says (people are often surprised by his “fast food” salary). “And they have a really good bonus program that helped me through the home buying experience.”
According to Eddie, competitive pay has allowed him to live out his commitment to the community (MRCO believes in this, too!) by donating generously to his favorite nonprofits when volunteering — because of his schedule — doesn’t seem possible.
And our bonus program? It helped pay the closing costs on his dream home!
With a company bonus, the closing costs on Eddie’s dream home were taken care of!
At MRCO, we’re thrilled to see that it’s not all work for Eddie. Our team members deserve excellent benefits for their dedication. And the pursuit of happiness outside of work is important!